FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art dataset viewer for a computer file system. The dataset viewer is a display for a file manager program, manufactured by Microsoft.RTM. Corporation. As shown in FIG. 1, the file manager data viewer utilizes a simple tree approach to visualize hierarchical data structures. For the prior art dataset viewer example illustrated in FIG. 1, a tree structure display of a disk operating system (DOS) file system is shown. Specifically, the tree structure displays, for example, a bakerco file directory representing a high level directory, with several subdirectories or files displayed in an indented fashion to show a second level contained within the bakerco file directory. The tree structure utilizes the same indented approach to show additional subdirectories and files.
Although the tree structure technique is well suited to view the details of a specific region of data, the tree approach does a poor job of representing a view of the entire dataset. For example, for a file system having many files in a subdirectory that is contained in a main directory also having multiple of files, the high level directory is not displayed when the specific contents of the subdirectory are shown. Therefore, the tree structure can be characterized as having a high aspect ratio between the actual data shown and the entire view of the dataset. This high aspect ratio of the view causes a tunnel vision effect, such that only a narrow view of the local data in the area of interest is shown. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a view of hierarchical datasets that permit viewing of both local datas and the entire dataset.
In addition to the poor aspect ratio obtained by using the tree structure, the tree structure has additional limitations. Typically, a computer programmer or database manager works on a part of a dataset at any one particular time. In the traditional tree structure, the view is fixed regardless of the requirements of the user viewing the dataset. Therefore, a user is required to adapt the view to their work, rather than changing the view to suit the needs of the user. Consequently, it is desirable to permit a user to adapt and change the view of a hierarchical dataset according to the particular needs of that user.
In addition to being fixed, the view is also temporal. Even if a user is able to change the view, there is no way to save the particular view changed. In this information age, it is imperative that work can be leveraged from the work of others. Therefore, it is desirable to permit the customized view to persist even after the application program is halted. By allowing a view to persist, a user can utilize the view that was built previously, or a user can utilize a view built by someone else, thus building a cooperative knowledge within a particular work group.